Programs of the Robert E. Brown Center for World Music are dependent upon grants, gifts, and funds raised through concerts, performances and services. The Center was established at the University




Gateways to World Music series presents:
The Ecstatic Music of the Indian Himalayas - Pritam Bhartwan and Stefan Fiol
February 25, 2018 - 2:00pm
Spurlock Museum
600 S. Gregory, Urbana
Admission Free
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music invites campus and community members to discover the ecstatic music of the Indian Himalayas through a performance lecture by renowned singer, drummer, healer, and recording artist Pritam Bhartwan and Stefan Fiol, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Cincinnati who has spent the last decade studying these musical traditions. Their performance will combine ornate vocals with dense, interlocking patterns performed on a variety of indigenous percussion and wind instruments. Together they will demonstrate the full range of expressive culture from this Himalayan region, including possession ceremonies, heroic ballads, festival dance-songs, and music for seasonal and life-cycle rituals.
Pritam Bhartwan is among the most widely acclaimed artists in the central Himalayas of North India. Beginning at the age of seven, Pritam began learning the drumming and singing traditions of Garhwal (the western portion of Uttarakhand) by traveling with his father and uncles to possession rituals, epic ballad performances, and local ceremonies and festivals. He soon acquired a reputation as one of the most electrifying performers in the region and went on to record more than 50 commerical albums, in addition to appearing regularly on All India Radio and Doordarshan, India’s state television program. Pritam has received a number of awards from the government of India, including the Sur Samrat, Jagar Samrat, and Uttarakhand Vibhuti. He has also become one of the leading ambassadors of folk music from the Garhwal Himalayas, taking his music and dynamic teaching style to Oman, United Arab Emirates, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and various parts of the United States.
Stefan Fiol is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He specializes in the music of the Uttarakhand Himalayas of northern India. Stefan received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008 after conducting several years of ethnomusicological research in the Indian Himalayas. His research has been funded by fellowships from Fulbright Hays, the Wenner Gren Foundation, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. In 2017, Stefan published a book with University of Illinois Press entitled Recasting Folk: Indian Music, Media and Social Mobility; other publications have appeared in Ethnomusicology, Asian Music, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Journal of Asian Studies, and Journal of South Asian Popular Culture.
This lectureship is supported by the Lorado Taft on Art Fund / College of Fine and Applied Arts, programmed as part of the Gateways to World Music Series, presented by the Robert E. Brown Center for World Music.
Community Balinese Gamelan Classes Resume Monday, January 22, 2018
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music offers community members the opportunity to learn and play traditional Balinese Gamelan music under the direction of I Ketut Gede Asnawa, a master gamelan musician and composer at the University of Illinois. A gamelan is an orchestra consisting mainly of keyed metallophones, gongs, and drums, often functioning as accompaniment to dance, dramas, and other Balinese performance arts. As part of the center’s programming, these Monday evening classes from 6pm to 8pm are open to all, free of charge, with no prior experience required. Classes are located in Room 0300 of School of Music at 1114 W. Nevada Street, with the closest entrance located on the Oregon Street side of the building. No credit is offered and registration is not needed for these classes. However, participants join the ensemble with an understanding that regular attendance is required in order to enjoy the responsibility of making music in an orchestra where everyone depends on the contribution of every player. For more information, please email the center at worldmusic [at] illinois.edu
News
highlights
-
April 22, 2018 - 3:30pm - 6:30pm
Join the University of Wisconsin Russian Folk Orchestra, under the direction of Victor...
-
April 28, 2018 - 7:30pm
The UI Latin Jazz Ensemble performs works with South American, Caribbean, Afro-Cuban, and...
-
April 29, 2018 - 1:00pm - 4:00pm
The Asian American Cultural Center will be celebrating Asian Pacific Islander Desi American...
-
May 6, 2018 - 2:00pm
For our Spring 2018 concert, University of Illinois Balinese Gamelan ensembles under the...